Chapter 55
“Is that level of punishment enough?”
“Hm? Ah, you mean those military police guys?”
“Military police?”
Recalling the buzz-cut Mu Pung Squad members she had seen on the way to Cheon Mujin’s office, Jin Sohee nodded.
“They’re people who need discipline.”
“Yeah. They should be disciplined. Still, it’s fine. After suffering at death’s door, when temptations are all around them, slipping once or twice isn’t the worst thing.”
“Anyone who succumbs to comfort once will find it easy to fall again the next time.”
“If they keep falling that easily, in its own way that’s pretty impressive.”
Cheon Mujin chuckled, and Sohee looked at him silently before nodding.
“If you’re that confident, then you must have a good reason.”
“Right. Thanks for worrying.”
“…Have you heard the news about the Houunjong family?”
“Yeah. I heard it was wrapped up neatly?”
“Yes. The head of the house and most of them were locked up in the underground dungeon. A few of the worst criminals were executed.”
“And the missing persons cases?”
“They’ve dropped significantly after the fall of the Houunjong family.”
“Guess they’re planning to keep their heads down for now.”
Of course, no one expected the disappearances to stop just because the Houunjong clan had been crushed.
Cutting off the tail doesn’t kill the body.
But if the rat holds still for a while because the pain of losing its tail is too sharp, then even that is a success.
At least the grain stores wouldn’t keep getting drained.
The time they’d bought was valuable in itself.
“If I find any other leads, I’ll report them to you.”
“Mm, thanks.”
With nothing more to say, Sohee rose from her seat. She glanced briefly at Geom Yujin, who was standing guard at the door.
Something seemed…
‘…Tired?’
A martial artist of first rank standing duty while clearly exhausted?
That usually only happened if the shifts were extremely long, or if someone had wasted their nights in indulgence and couldn’t get proper sleep.
The enforcement squads had a few such degenerates too.
‘…Indulgence.’
Sohee briefly looked back at Cheon Mujin, who was smiling and waving lightly. She bowed her head slightly.
Pointless worry.
It didn’t matter who he met with.
‘Focus on your own duties, Jin Sohee.’
Renewing her determination, she left. Cheon Mujin watched her retreating figure quietly from the window until she was completely out of sight.
Then, moving away from the window, he stepped out of his office.
“Blade Guard.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How are your families doing?”
“They should be well, I believe.”
“No matter how much salary I give you, if you send it all back home, what do you eat?”
“The meals here are provided, so I manage.”
“Tsk tsk, if you work your body hard, you need to take care of your food.”
Clicking his tongue, Mujin opened the doors to the training hall in his residence.
A wave of heat swept out.
“Good.”
Sensing the faint tension in the air, he smiled.
In an instant, a spearhead darted from the left, and he caught it between his index and middle fingers.
It was the kind of insane move no one should ever try unless they had a death wish.
“Hup!”
Yu Hyeonhwa twisted the spear and leapt, trying to wrench it free. Or rather, she struggled to control her body as it flew.
Thud!
Landing on her back, she suppressed the pain and swept the floor with the shaft.
At the same moment, Baek Woo’s sword slid along Mujin’s palm as he struck from above.
Steel clashed. Hyeonhwa’s spear was blocked.
“Close, but failed.”
Mujin lightly kicked Dowoojin’s chin as he attacked from behind, sending him flying. Then, clapping cheerfully, he said:
“Excellent. You’ve improved a lot. You could take down an average peak master in one strike.”
Behind him, Geom Yujin only shook her head.
It wasn’t that she doubted Mujin’s praise.
It was that the very fact Mujin had easily blocked a lethal surprise strike—one that could kill a peak master instantly—was too unreal.
At just past twenty years old, to have such overwhelming strength…
She had grown up hailed as a genius herself, but Mujin was on an entirely different plane.
So were Baek Woo and Yu Hyeonhwa, who threw themselves at him relentlessly.
The problem was—
“There’s no need to be disappointed that you haven’t crossed the wall yet. You’ll surpass it before you’re twenty.”
—Mujin’s standards were far higher than anything she could imagine.
“For that reason, starting today, it’s real combat training.”
“Real combat training?”
“Yes. Facing many enemies in varied environments helps more than you’d think.”
And in that sense, the Demonic Sect was the best place to grow strong.
With so many enemies, the battlefield was always ready.
“How about we take a trip north?”
Northern Front
The Northern Front.
The battlefield defended by the Hyun clan, one of the Four Great Families.
The Demonic Sect’s battle lines were divided into three: north, east, and southwest.
The eastern and southwestern fronts relied partly on the Four Families, but were managed mainly by troops dispatched from the sect’s headquarters.
The regions were vast, and many enemies there were humans.
East meant the Martial Alliance.
Southwest meant Kunlun and the foreign powers.
Since humans were involved, the Demonic Sect’s name itself carried weight. Many strike forces like the Mu Pung Squad were deployed there.
Of course, that didn’t mean the Four Families sat idle.
The Jin family’s forces bolstered the east, and the Wi family’s forces were heavy in the southwest.
Only the Oh family, masters of sorcery, didn’t directly lead a front.
The Hyun clan, however, sent even more troops than the Jin or Wi.
Because in the icy north, the only enemies that came down were monsters.
What was needed there was nothing but elite forces.
No trash from headquarters could survive that frozen hell.
This was a front divorced from the politics of the sect, existing only to defend.
Their pride was fierce.
So when Cheon Mujin and his group appeared, the gatekeeper’s response was sharp.
“You’re smiling?”
“Hm? Something funny?”
The gatekeeper, wrapped in heavy fur, sighed.
“The aftereffects of Purgatory Gorge are still here. Send in brats like you, and you’ll either freeze to death or be torn apart by monsters first. At least it won’t be a long agony.”
He waved them away, clearly unwilling to let them in. Mujin only smiled and pulled out a token.
“No bribe will—”
The gatekeeper froze when he saw it.
“…I’ll open the gate.”
“Efficient. I like it.”
Mujin tucked the token back.
The gatekeeper called his deputy with a sigh.
“Why’d you let them in, sir?”
“It was the Heavenly Gate Token.”
“Wait, that actually exists?”
“Of course it does, idiot.”
He smacked the deputy’s head.
“I’ll go report this. Keep guard.”
“Yes, sir.”
The gatekeeper muttered as he left:
“What business could a Cheon family scion possibly have in a place like this…?”
The deputy, left alone, grinned faintly at the footprints disappearing into the mountains.
How long could the Cheon clan’s young master last up there?
Hopefully he wouldn’t come crying back.
“What token did you show him?”
“The Heavenly Gate Token.”
“Huh? That’s real?”
“Of course. Didn’t you learn about it?”
“Well, yes, but still…”
The Heavenly Gate Token.
Issued by the Cheon clan, it allowed entry to any battlefront.
But few ever used it.
Because it was meant for outsiders wanting to enter the front.
And who in their right mind would willingly step into such a place?
“Enough chatter. Get ready.”
“Sniff… I don’t sense anything.”
“Me neither.”
“…Nor I.”
Yu Hyeonhwa, Do Woojin, and Baek Woo all gave the same answer. Mujin nodded.
“Three paces ahead, two of them, beneath the snow.”
“Oh?”
Mujin looked at Geom Yujin with a hint of surprise.
“How did you notice?”
“Guard training covers many things. I picked up some detection skills.”
“Impressive. To sense monsters hiding in the snow, slowing their heartbeat… not easy. And to apply theory instantly in real combat—good talent.”
Praising her, Mujin signaled Hyeonhwa and Baek Woo forward.
The moment they stepped into the spot she indicated, snow exploded upward, and axes swung toward them.
Slash!
Baek Woo’s blade cut a throat, blood melting the snow. Hyeonhwa followed by thrusting her spear clean through the other’s neck.
“Whistle~! Nicely done.”
Grinning, Mujin pressed onward.
“From now on, I won’t fight against these. And I won’t give warnings either.”
He trudged forward through the snow, four others close behind.
“For starters, let’s see if you can last ten days.”
“Captain, it’s already been over ten days.”
“I know.”
“Shouldn’t we send a search party?”
“You know the mountain’s state.”
“Precisely why I say it. Ten days. Not even our troops could survive that long inside.”
At his deputy’s insistence, Commander Beom Gudo of the Third Wall Defense shook his head.
“To send a search party for someone who walked in with a Heavenly Gate Token is absurd.”
“Our investigation shows he’s almost certainly the Cheon clan’s eldest son, sir. If he dies—”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does matter!”
The deputy thumped his chest in frustration.
This was the problem with northern men—they only cared about doing their own duty.
If the Cheon heir died, even the commander would be punished!
But truthfully, he knew.
Ten days.
The odds he was alive were less than one in ten.
The search would be nothing but theater, a gesture of trying.
The captain had no desire to waste men on an empty gesture.
Realizing his boss would not change his mind, the deputy sighed and stepped outside.
Fine, let the higher-ups rant. He’d just smash back and then retire somewhere quiet…
Seeking fresh air to clear his head, he climbed the wall.
Then he squinted.
‘Something moved?’
Far off, in the woods, something shifted.
What was that chill? He drew up his internal energy, staring.
A monster.
A mid-high grade beast, the Fang Snow Leopard.
Its massive fangs, the size of a man’s head, confirmed it.
And not one—
‘Three of them?!’
If three of those hit the wall, the damage would be catastrophic!
“R-raise the alarm—”
But then he stopped. Something was wrong.
At that speed, they should’ve been at the wall in a blink.
And their head angles looked… odd.
Studying them closer, he saw the truth.
They weren’t alive.
Their eyes were open, fooling him, but their bodies weren’t moving properly.
And—
“…Unbelievable.”
Beneath the carcasses of the giant beasts, a person was walking.
Carrying them on his shoulders, striding casually toward the wall.
One of them was spotless, as if he’d just left home in fresh clothes.
The other four looked as though they’d rolled through a slaughterhouse.
Five people.
The deputy’s face twisted in shock as he realized who they were.
“…They survived?”
The group that had left ten days ago had returned alive and well.
